Hair loss and other disorders of the mammalian pilosebaceous apparatus (hair/oil gland) remain a great source of distress and concern today for many afflicted patients. There have been suggestions in the literature that severe male pattern baldness (occurring before the age of thirty) is the male phenotype of the polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a common endocrine abnormality in women that leads to infertility and obesity (although some PCOS patients are lean). Another feature of PCOS is profound insulin resistance which occurs in both obese and lean patients. This excess insulin in PCOS is believed to drive excess androgen production which results in hyperandrogenism in some PCOS patients. It has been assumed that it is the hyperandrogenism that causes the diffuse hair loss and hirsutism noted in a subset of these women.
Male pattern baldness, also called andro(chrono)genetic alopecia, has long been recognized as the result of androgens acting over time on genetically susceptible hair follicles. However, it is becoming evident that mechanisms other than those which implicate androgen activity are involved in hair loss disorders. In fact, many female hair loss sufferers do not have elevated male hormones, and local or systemic treatment with androgen receptor blocking agents or steroid enzyme inhibitors does not restore hair growth. Nor are these agents overwhelmingly successful in treating balding males, suggesting that some other mechanism is contributing to the balding process.
Since the physiological mechanisms contributing to hair loss and other disorders of the pilosebaceous apparatus in mammals, such as humans, are only partially understood, there is an unmet need in the art for compositions and methods useful in the treatment of hair loss and other disorders of the pilosebaceous apparatus.